Penalties and Measures against Sale of Illegal Health Products
Ministry of HealthSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns the regulation of illegal health products, with MP Yip Hon Weng inquiring about penalty structures, technological surveillance, and international enforcement efforts. Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung noted that penalties under the Health Products Act include fines up to $100,000 and three years' imprisonment, which are significantly higher than previous 2007 levels. The Health Sciences Authority employs e-commerce surveillance tools to monitor local platforms, identifying that 14% of illegal listings in 2023 were from overseas sellers. Since the authority lacks extra-territorial powers, it relies on cooperation with local platforms and international information exchanges with agencies like INTERPOL to address these sellers. In 2023, these global collaborations led to the removal of over 7,000 illegal health product listings through participation in two major international operations.
Transcript
7 Mr Yip Hon Weng asked the Minister for Health (a) whether the Ministry will consider increased penalties for offences related to the sale of illegal health products; (b) whether the Ministry is deploying technology to ensure effective identification of and enforcement against illegal health product sales; (c) what percentage of the illegal health products are offered by sellers based overseas; (d) what challenges do our authorities face in taking enforcement actions on these sellers; and (e) whether there are plans for more collaboration with international counterparts to improve enforcement effectiveness.
Mr Ong Ye Kung: The current penalties for sellers of illegal products are a fine of up to $100,000 and/or up to three years imprisonment under the Health Products Act. This is higher than previous penalties of up to $5,000 and/or up to two years imprisonment under the Medicines Act back in 2007.
To enforce against such violations, the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) conducts surveillance, collects intelligence on illegal activities and employs an e-commerce surveillance tool to proactively scan listings on major local e-commerce platforms to detect and remove illegal health products from online marketplaces.
In 2023, approximately 14% of illegal health product listings on major local e-commerce platforms were by overseas sellers. While HSA does not have extra-territorial powers, it works closely with the local platforms to remove these product listings. HSA also actively participates in international operations and exchanges information with overseas enforcement counterparts for them to take actions. In 2023, HSA participated in two international operations led by INTERPOL targeting illegal health product sales and removed a total of over 7,000 online listings.